Young Women in the US and in the DR

Nancy and Morgan are going off to camp with the Young Women on June 30th. I have had a chance to be involved in their camp experience this year. Each ward in their stake was asked to represent a foreign country and come to camp prepared to share something of that country. Nancy suggested to me that their Utah YW write letters to YW here in the Dominican Republic so they could share information and perhaps begin a correspondence. Nancy sent 23 letters written by the YW in their ward. I found 23 YW here in the DR who wrote letters in return. There have been some mishaps. Two letters sent to Cotuí and San Francisco de Marcorís reached the Young Women and I spoke with each of them on the phone but their return letters have not yet reached me. There is no regular mail delivery service here in this country. The church has it's own system but apparently we didn't use it correctly. Cindy (Cotuí) and Maria (San Francisco) now have Nancy's email address and perhaps they will connect with their pen pals in American Fork. I do know that Nancy has lots of letters that have reached her along with some souvenier type stuff to display in their cabins at camp. The beauty of this exchange has been the sharing of favorite Young Women Values and testimonies as well as favorite foods and leisure activities. The girls here were so happy to learn about real girls their own ages in a country far away and find that they had many things in common. The girls in both countries wrote of love for their families and the importance of their friends and the faith they have in Jesus Christ and the security of knowing we have a prophet who can guide us in the choices we make in our lives. The girls in Utah definitely had more exotic Mutual activities (I'm still guessing what human foosball is and I didn't even try to describe an activity called "Where's Waldo") but both groups loved having fun at Mutual with friends who supported them in their efforts to live good lives. The girls from Utah stapled a photo to their letters so it would be more personal. Here are a few of the photos I took here and sent to Utah.

This is the group of girls that attended the Nizao Branch the first day I visited. Their names are: Loly, Sonyara, Yacairi, Milinia, Stefani, Maileisy, Marlene and Sarali.

More girls wanted to particpate.

I took a photo of Kiari the next time we visited.

I suspect the Mutual activities of the Nizao branch are more simple than some of the activities in the American Fork ward but I'm sure they accomplish the same purpose.

They told me that they do have activities almost every week. Perhaps they sometimes meet in this cool gazebo in the center of town or they could always go to the beach! It is never too cold here.

I don't know if there is a beach with sand nearby but the ocean is very close to their town. I didn't get to go and see because we had another meeting to attend both Sundays.


Hopefully we can go back again and see more. We did arrive a bit early and I took these photos of houses all on the same street that the church is on. There is quite a variety of houses here on the same street in Nizao. No CC&R's or California cookie-cutter subdivisions here.

Before we leave Nizao I wanted to show you the little boys who burst out of the building when the meetings were over. I wanted a photo of the building and they wanted their picture taken and everyone had to see it on the camera. Made me feel right at home. Aren't they cute!

And here is a photo of a beautiful little girl. Someday soon she will be a Young Woman too.

Young Women from our own ward, the Piantini Ward, participated in the letter writing project. Our Young Women's president used to visit her grandmother in New Jersey every summer when she was a child so she speaks English well. She has been a big help and has emailed Nancy. Our ward only has five Young Women. Sister Lin Briceño wishes she had more. Here are photos of a couple of them. Each of the letters from the Piantini Ward were written in English with the help of a couple of other members who are also bilingual. The girls wanted to be sure that their American friends could understand them well.

Sister Briceño also arranged for me to go to another ward in our stake. The Quisqueya Ward only has five girls as well but they were eager to receive and write letters too. Here are a couple of photos from their Mutual activity. In our stake, Independencia, it seems that Mutual is on Thursday nights. I translated the Utah letters into Spanish so the girls could read them. Nancy used a fill in the blanks format and that helped the girls here to know what to write about too. I'm so glad she included a place for a testimony, favorite scripture and favorite YW value. The girls enjoyed reading those entries and discussed their favorites as well.

Sister Briceño came as well as two of the girls from our ward. They are sisters and one has her hand on her sister´s shoulder in front of her. One girl had to leave before we took this photo but you can see Lin Briceño, Carolina before the sisters Natalia and Beatriz, another Carolina, Patricia, Angela de la Rosa who wrote a letter to Morgan, Sister Pilades Martinez, the YW president and Madeline, the first counselor.

Thank you Nancy and Morgan for the opportunity to get acquainted with some wonderful Young Women and learn a bit more about the Dominican Republic as well. Please let us know about your experiences at camp.